Meditation Chamber

A mournful whooshing of wind pressure came from the direction of the academy ahead.

Dago stopped and looked over with the many numb-faced people on the street.

Amid the snow-covered peaks of Ainak Wizard Academy, three small silver-patterned airships, each twenty to thirty meters long and resembling sailing ships, rose into the air through the vast curtain of falling snow.

"The academy seems to have been dispatching airships more and more often lately. Has the situation changed again?"

Dago watched the several airships receding beneath the snowfall, his eyes flickering as he thought to himself.

After watching for a moment, he continued forward and entered the Wizard Hall.

The Wizard Hall was rather empty at the moment, with only a handful of wandering apprentice wizards handling business. These past few days, most academy wizards whose identities had been verified had chosen to return to the academy.

Dago had no intention of returning to the academy for now. That Vissel would definitely interfere and cause him trouble. Rather than invite trouble, he might as well let him gloat for a while.

He went to the Third-Level Apprentice counter. The receptionist was the same pretty young woman from his first visit, and she processed his application to use a meditation chamber while staring at him in disbelief.

The deposit was one Low-Grade Magic Stone, the allotted time was five hours, and the usage fee was one-fifth of a Low-Grade Magic Stone.

Dago was utterly taken aback by the meditation chamber's fees. They were outrageously expensive. He truly missed the days in the shelter, when he could cast wizardry as freely as he pleased.

When he entered the meditation chamber, he found a room built entirely of stone, its four walls constructed from bluish-gray granite.

One of the stone walls was covered in pits of varying depths, marks left behind by apprentice wizards casting spells.

The floor was covered with a half-foot-thick layer of burlap padding. At its center stood a hexagonal rune array, with a fist-sized "Elemental Crystal" embedded in its core. The crystal's color changed according to the elements in the surrounding environment.

It turned crimson when fire elements filled the air, and glimmered with an eerie blue when ice elements were active.

No extraneous sound could be heard anywhere in the room, because Sound-Absorbing Rune Arrays had been set around it.

The pockmarked stone wall contained an Energy-Absorbing Rune Array, allowing it to be used for spell bombardment experiments.

Dago activated Mental Sight and sensed a "hum" permeating the air. It was the resonance produced by colliding elements.

The three skills Dago primarily trained in the meditation chamber were the Meditation Method, Detection Technique, and Resonance Art. He did not dare use his other combat skills.

He was mainly afraid of blasting apart that rune wall. If that happened, selling himself would not be enough to cover the compensation.

Dago summoned the system panel and brought up the progress displays for those three skills.

[Universal Wizard Meditation Method (Metamorphosis 1310/10000); Resonance Art (Metamorphosis 80/10000); Detection Technique (Metamorphosis 57/10000)]

There was no need to mention the Meditation Method. It was a daily essential for cultivation.

As it improved, the range his mental power could reach had grown to five meters, while the time required to expel Soul Entropy had been reduced to five minutes.

After his mental power was exhausted, he could also slowly convert Mental Mist to replenish it. His mana recovery had improved.

The ice elements currently intercepted by Resonance Art could now cover both his arms and chest.

Moreover, he had discovered that after Resonance Art advanced into the Metamorphosis stage, it was actually improving his physique.

His body, having coexisted with ice elements for a long time, had received an extremely minute amount of radiation from elemental power.

In essence, this was a wizard's forbidden art that worked from the outside in. Once cultivated deeply enough, it would cause the flesh to rot away.

Simply put, the human body could not bear elemental power unless one possessed the bloodline of an ancient species.

"Could I possess the talent to become one of those legendary, one-in-ten-thousand Bloodline Wizards?"

Dago happily entertained the thought.

The progress of Detection Technique was equally apparent. It could now detect a fan-shaped area forty meters ahead of him.

It also provided basic information on wizardry within that range. That miraculous change was probably bestowed by the system.

As the "Elemental Crystal" at the center of the room flashed with eerie blue light, Dago entered training mode as well.

That afternoon, after finishing his training in the meditation chamber and settling the usage fee, Dago walked back to the Wizard Inn.

The moment he stepped through the inn's entrance, Dago saw Selena and old Mariko sitting in the empty tea room, drinking Mind-Clearing Tea.

According to what Dago knew, it was a marvelous plant imported by the Wizarding Alliance from the distant East. It was also tea, something he was familiar with.

It refreshed the mind and sharpened one's senses, earning it the name of a lesser Mental Potion. Unfortunately, it was a little expensive.

The two were chatting with smiles on their faces. When they saw Dago, they immediately invited him to sit with them.

Old Mariko looked at Dago's long hair and said with a mischievous grin, "Dago, lad, your hair has gotten quite long. Our little Selena happens to be quite skilled at cutting hair. What do you say? Interested in getting a haircut in the courtyard?"

Selena's face quickly turned red at his words, but she did not refuse. She only kept sneaking glances at Dago's expression.

Dago looked at his long hair, which had already fallen past his shoulders, and nodded. That's right. It had been nearly two months since he last used a dagger to cut his own hair in the shelter.

Seeing Dago agree, Selena's face blossomed into a smile, and she hurried upstairs to fetch iron scissors and a burlap cape.

A few minutes later, Dago sat on a wooden chair with only his head exposed beneath the burlap cape, while Selena gently yet deftly cut away his long black hair.

She made almost no sound while cutting his hair. Dago could only hear the soft rustle of severed strands falling to the ground.

Old Mariko stood nearby watching, then said with a smile, "Evan and his wife want to treat the three of us to dinner, to thank us for looking after them during our time in the Patrol Guard."

Dago searched through his memories. Evan and his wife were the couple who had left the team after Gavin's death, saying they would move to town to stay with relatives.

"Of course. I also miss our old days in the Patrol Guard," Dago said without turning his head.

It seemed old Mariko had run into quite a few old friends recently.

In truth, Dago understood very clearly the difficult circumstances faced by wizards living in the forest.

After moving to town, most of them would struggle to adapt, like free birds that once had the sky but were suddenly locked in cages.

The apprentice wizards who chose to live in the forest were generally those without any particular skills, who found it difficult to make a decent living in town.

More importantly, they had no Magic Stones. Given the town's absurdly high cost of living, even apprentice wizards with some savings would struggle to survive, and their funds would soon be depleted.

As Dago continued thinking, he sensed Selena stop moving.

She removed the cape from Dago's body, her cheeks flushed as she indicated that she had finished.

Then, as if by magic, she pulled a silver mirror out from behind her back and held it before Dago.

In the mirror, his eighteen-year-old self looked like a young pine kissed by morning light. His sharp brow bones seemed carved by a blade, while his eye sockets held the faint shadows unique to youth.

Combined with his neatly trimmed crew cut, he possessed a handsome air that blended youthful freshness with sharpness.

He smiled at Selena. "You're very skilled. It feels like you could open a shop in town."

Having received Dago's approval, Selena could not help saying happily, "Thank you for the compliment, Captain Dago."

Dago rose and returned to his room to wash away the loose hairs. Using a trace of mental power to compress the air, he made a small hair dryer to dry his hair.

Once he was done, he went downstairs to meet the other two, ready to attend Evan and his wife's dinner invitation together.